MAJOR MASSEY'S PROMOTION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 72, 18 December 1917, Page 5

MAJOR MASSEY'S PROMOTION

A METEORIC CAREER. The following reference to Major F. G. Massey, sou of the Prime Minister, is (says the Auckland "Herald") contained in a letter, dated September 13, received by the Minister of Defence (Sir James Allen) from the. general commanding the New Zealand Expeditionary Force: — "The Prime Minister's son has had a most meteoric career lately, and is now commanding a British battalion. He was, in the ordinary course of events, like many other promising young officers, attached t<) a British brigade to learn staff work. In this brigade there happened to be an Ulster battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, to which, I suppose, from the nature cf his antecedents, he was particularly attracted. Anyhow they asked if be might be transferred to the regiment and appointed second in command, to whioh I would not agree, as I said I thought he ought to stick to the New Zealand Forces. He was still attached to the staff of this brigade during the Battle of : Messines, and did so well that he got a. Military Cross, and they then asked if he might be allowed to stay on and be employed with a. battalion. To this I agreed, on the distinct understanding that he was not to be in any way transferred to the Brit■ish Army, and that he was only lent temporarily, and whenever we wanted him back we should have him. The result is that ho is now commanding a battalion. But he is only.lent, and we can have him back whenever we like. They had no idea till they_ were toM that he was tho Prime Minister's son, and his success, I need hardly say, ltffbeen entirely on his own merits and with no help from anybody." Major Massey, who is the youngest son of the Prime Minister, is a native of the Auckland district. He enlisted ■in the early stages of tne war, aud went into camp as a corporal. He passed his examination for a commission, and left Now Zealand as a second lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade. After serving in Egypt he went to Franco, where he gained rapid promotion. He was all through the Battle of ihe Somme, where he saw three weeks' continuous fighting. He was awarded tne Military Cross iii July last.